Using the time equivalency method to evaluate fire risk

Receiving the 2005 Milne Medal was a great honour and I look forward to being able to present some of my project work to the Institution later this year at the Milne Lecture. Whilst being happy and delighted to be lauded in this way I am acutely aware that designing and building structures is a team activity and there has to be a fine balance between individual and team recognition. The architecture profession probably pursues the cult of the individual with undue zeal but I do believe, however, that there is plenty of development potential for the engineering community to encourage the individual engineer to ‘own’ a portfolio of work where something of their character and values can be seen and appreciated. My old friend and former boss Anthony Hunt is a notable example and it is unfortunate that over the past 30 years the number of such engineers, recognised in their own right, is sorely limited; Bill Addis with his exhibition and subsequent books on the Art of the Structural Engineer1 has been one of the few serious authors to recognise the engineer in this respect and it is to be hoped that further initiatives in this direction are underway. David Tasker, BSc(Eng), MSc(Arch), CEng, MICE, FRSA Gifford